Fugitive Dust Emissions from Off-Road Vehicle Maneuvers on Military Training Lands
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FUGITIVE DUST EMISSIONS FROM OFF-ROAD VEHICLE MANEUVERS ON MILITARY TRAINING LANDS J. C. Meeks, L. E. Wagner, R. G. Maghirang, J. Tatarko, N. Bloedow ABSTRACT. Off-road vehicle training can contribute to air quality degradation because of increased wind erosion as a result of soil disruption during high wind events. However, limited information exists regarding the impacts of off-road vehicle maneuvering on wind erosion potential of soils. This study was conducted to determine the effects of soil texture and intensity of training with off-road vehicles on fugitive dust emission potential due to wind erosion at military training installations. Multi-pass military vehicle trafficking experiments involving wheeled and tracked vehicles were conducted at three military training facilities (Fort Riley, Kansas; Fort Benning, Georgia; and Yakima Training Center, Washing- ton) with different vegetative conditions and soil textures. The top 6 cm of soil was collected with minimum disturbance into trays and tested in a laboratory wind tunnel for dust emission potential. In wind tunnel testing, the amount of emitted dust was measured using a Grimm aerosol spectrometer. The dust emission potential due to wind erosion was significant- ly influenced by soil texture, vehicle type, and number of passes. For the light wheeled vehicle, total dust emissions (<20 μm) increased by 357% and 868% for 10 and 50 passes, respectively, from the undisturbed soil condition. For the tracked vehicle, an average increase in total dust emissions (<20μm) of 569% was observed between undisturbed soil and one pass, with no significant increase in emission potential beyond one pass. For the heavy wheeled vehicle, evaluated only at Yakima, emissions (<20 μm) increased by 2,108% and 5,276% for 10 and 20 passes, respectively, from the undisturbed soil condition. Soil texture also played an important role in dust emission potential. For all treatment effects with the light wheeled vehicle, there was a 1,396% increase in emissions (<20 μm) on loamy sand soil over silty clay loam soil. Keywords. Air quality, Particulate matter, Soil, Wind erosion. he U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) manages of vegetation, soil compaction, and soil loss due to erosion and conducts training on over 12 million ha of by water and wind (Althoff et al., 2010). Although some land (DoD, 2013). This land is used for various windborne dust events can be classified as exceptional purposes, including residential and commercial events, soil transport by wind movement can contribute to Tactivities and intensive combat training operations. Many monitored particulate matter (PM) values that exceed the combat training activities require navigating large, heavy National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) (Ash- off-road vehicles across potentially sensitive and undis- baugh et al., 2003). Suspended wind-eroded particulate turbed off-road locations. These activities can create signif- matter (PM) emitted from military installations can be car- icant disturbance to the soil surface and adversely affect the ried long distances from the training land and well beyond local ecosystem. The most prevalent impacts include loss property boundaries. Soil erosion by wind is a dynamic process that often re- sults in loss of the fertile top layer of soil, which can reduce Submitted for review in September 2013 as manuscript number NRES agricultural production as well as degrade local air quality 10428; approved for publication by the Natural Resources & (Skidmore and van Donk, 2003; Diaz-Nigenda et al., 2010). Environmental Systems of ASABE in December 2014. Presented at the Intensive tillage and other agricultural practices on arid and 2013 ASABE Annual Meeting as Paper No. 131508778. Contribution No. 13-352-J from the Kansas Agricultural Experiment semi-arid land can contribute to an increase in soil loss due Station. to wind erosion. Many other factors, such as unpaved Mention of company or trade names is for description only and does roads, confined animal operations, and intensive use as not imply endorsement by the USDA. The USDA is an equal opportunity military training lands, may also contribute to dust emis- provider and employer. The authors are Jeremy C. Meeks, Former Graduate Student, sions due to wind erosion (Gillies et al., 2005). Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Kansas State In addition to simulation and field studies, previous re- University, Manhattan, Kansas; Larry E. Wagner, ASABE Member, search on wind erosion has also used wind tunnels under Agricultural Engineer, USDA-ARS Agricultural Systems Research Unit, field and laboratory conditions. Several studies (Van Pelt et Fort Collins, Colorado; Ronaldo G. Maghirang, ASABE Member, Professor, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Kansas al., 2010; Sweeney et al., 2008; Marticorena and Bergamet- State University, Manhattan, Kansas; John Tatarko, Soil Scientist, ti, 1997) have used in situ semi-portable wind tunnels that USDA-ARS Agricultural Systems Research Unit, Fort Collins, Colorado; are set up directly in the field on the surface of interest. Nicholas Bloedow, Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Statistics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas. Corresponding author: Other studies have used large laboratory wind tunnels to Larry Wagner, USDA-ARS Agricultural Systems Research Unit, 2150 control both wind speed and soil surface conditions to some Centre Ave., Bldg. D, Suite 200, Fort Collins, CO 80526; phone: 970-492- degree (Guoliang et al., 2003; Kohake et al., 2010). These 7382; e-mail: [email protected]. Transactions of the ASABE Vol. 58(1): 49-60 2015 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers ISSN 2151-0032 DOI 10.13031/trans.58.10428 49 studies have shown that wind tunnels can be used success- fully to study the underlying principles of wind erosion while simulating the optimal conditions that contribute to initiating large wind erosion events. Limited information exists regarding the impacts of mil- itary training activities on the wind erosion potential of soil. This research was conducted to determine the effects of off-road trafficking on fugitive dust emissions from mili- tary training lands. Specifically, the overall objective was to determine the effects of soil texture, vehicle type, and number of passes on dust emission potential using a labora- tory wind tunnel. MATERIALS AND METHODS FIELD SITES Testing was conducted at three DoD military training sites: Fort Riley, Kansas; Fort Benning, Georgia; and Ya- kima Training Center, Washington. These three sites repre- sent a diversity of vegetative conditions, soil textures, and off-road training activities. Two off-road military training vehicles were used at each site, representing a range of relatively lightweight to very heavy fully armored military off-road vehicles. Military training facilities cover a wide variety of locations within the U.S. Each experimental site was selected to provide a variety of soil textures as well as represent wind erosion susceptible soils at military installa- tions in different climates, but not necessarily represent a majority of the soils at all U.S. military training facilities. Fort Riley (39° 18′ 0″ N; 96° 55′ 18″ W) was the first installation chosen for testing, which was completed in Figure 1. (top) Heavy tracked model M1A1 and (bottom) light ar- October and November 2010. This installation is located in mored HMMWV model M1025A2 vehicles. the Flint Hills region of north central Kansas in Geary and Riley counties and covers 407 km2, with 287 km2 used for and on 8-12 November 2010 with the HMMWV. maneuver training (EPA, 2010). Fort Riley receives annual The second installation was Fort Benning, Georgia (32° precipitation of 889 mm and has an annual mean tempera- 24′ 14″ N; 84° 45′ 21″ W), with testing conducted on 21-24 ture of 12.6°C. Testing at Fort Riley was conducted on silty July 2012. Fort Benning is located on 765 km2 in west cen- clay loam (SiCL) and silt loam (SiL) soil textures (table 1). tral Georgia. This site is located in the humid Southeastern An M1A1 Abrams heavily armored tracked vehicle region of the U.S., which has relatively high precipitation (61,500 kg) and a light armored M1025A2 high-mobility and is affected by tropical maritime events, including fre- multipurpose wheeled vehicle (3,100 kg), commonly called quent thunderstorms and inland-moving hurricanes a Humvee (HMMWV), were used for testing. Figure 1 (NCDC, 2011). Fort Benning has average annual precipita- shows the two vehicles during testing at the Fort Riley site. tion of 1245 mm and a mean annual temperature of 18.3°C. The vegetation at the Fort Riley site was a mixed tallgrass Testing at Fort Benning was done at Rowan Hill on a prairie dominated by big bluestem (Andropogin gerardii) loamy sand (LS) soil texture (table 1). The two vehicles and Indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans) species. Testing on used were a HMMWV up-armored vehicle (model both soils was done on 18-22 October 2010 with the M1A1 M1151A1) with a curb weight of approximately 3,800 kg Table 1. Measured soil properties for the original surface at the experimental sites. Sand Silt Clay Organic Matter IWC[a] IBD[a] Site Soil Texture (g kg-1) (g kg-1) (g kg-1) (g kg-1) (kg kg-1) (g cm-3) Silt loam 0.16 T[b] 102 707 190 40 1.27 (SiL) 0.17 W Fort Riley Silty clay loam 0.18 T 79 641 280 41 1.22 (SiCL) 0.21 W Fort Benning Loamy sand 877 95 28 9 0.02 1.47 (Rowan Hill) (LS) Loam Yakima Training Center 513 438 50 21 0.01 1.30 (L) [a] IWC = initial water content and IBD = initial bulk density (5 cm depth) taken prior to trafficking at each site. [b] T denotes the tracked vehicle experiment (Oct. 2010) and W denotes the wheeled vehicle experiment (Nov. 2010) at Fort Riley. 50 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ASABE Table 2.